October: Pumpkin Carving
by Brown Eyes Parker
Summary: Coulson and the team carve pumpkins.


**October: Pumpkin Carving**

**A Coulson and May Story**

**By Brown Eyes Parker**

**Author's Note: **

**I have no idea where this story came from, I will admit it isn't one of my best efforts though. So, sorry for it. There are mentions of Frozen, Elsa and Kristoff in this story. And slight spoilers for the new season of Agents of SHIELD. **_**Slight **_**spoilers.**

**Rated: K+**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing.**

**.**

"Look what I got!" Coulson said to May as he struggled with a large pumpkin.

"What is _that _for?" May asked, her eyes widening. "Don't tell me. . ."

"Pumpkin carving!" Coulson replied, confirming exactly what she was thinking. "Halloween is less than three weeks away. We _should _carve pumpkins."

"Pumpkins _plural_?" May asked. "You mean there's more?"

"One for each of us!" Coulson answered gleefully.

May shook her head but smiled in spite of herself. "What am I going to do with you?"

"Carve pumpkins with me," Coulson said. "Come on, it'll be a fun team exercise."

"Carving pumpkins will be a _fun _team exercise?" May asked, wiping the sweat off her forehead. "I'd like to hear you use that on all the guys on the team. They're not exactly little boys, Coulson. I think they'd much prefer a baseball game and beer as a team exercise."

"I'll tell you what if you get them to carve pumpkins with us—"

"With _us_?" May said, raising an eyebrow.

"And I'll get tickets to the Yankees-Red Sox game next week for everyone. With all the beer and French fries _you_ could ever want."

May smiled at him. "Deal," she agreed as she went over and helped him with the pumpkin that he was juggling. "So, how many more of these are left?"

"One for each of us," Coulson answered. "They were buy one get one free at the farmer's market."

"Phil. . ."

"Come on, I'm tired of acting like the world is going to end. I think we need to celebrate a little and remember that there are good things happening all around us."

"I'll start looking for my Anna costume on eBay as soon as possible, Director," May joked as she followed him out to his car. "Do you want to be Kristoff?"

"No?" Coulson answered. "Besides, I wasn't talking about dressing up and going out trick-or-treating or anything else like that."

"You weren't?" May asked, hardly able to contain her smile.

"No! And don't even get me started on how unsafe it would be to have kids come here to trick-or-treat!"

"We could rent an apartment for the night, pretend like we were normal people. . ." May trailed off. "I'm just kidding. You've gotten really uptight lately. You do know that, right?"

"Excuse me? I'm the one who suggested we carve pumpkins in the first place!" Coulson retorted as they lifted the pumpkin out of his trunk together. "I just have a lot on my mind. That's all."

"I know and I also know that you don't have to do it all by yourself. Just pretend that your problems are carving pumpkins and ask someone for help sometimes."

"Who?" Coulson asked.

"You know you could always ask me," May answered, giving him a serious look. "I'm here for you whether you like it or not."

"I know," Coulson said, smiling at her. "Thank you for that."

"Come on," May said quickly. "Let's get the rest of these pumpkins in and then we can break the bad news to the rest of the team."

Coulson frowned. "_Bad _news?"

"You know, how you're going to have them all carve pumpkins," May replied.

Coulson laughed and shook his head. "Oh. _That_."

"The sooner you do it, the better."

"Stop making fun of me," he said, jabbing her a little in the ribs.

"I'm not making fun of you!"

"Well, it sure sounds like it to me," Coulson told her, smiling at her so she knew it was all light-hearted banter.

There was a beat and then May smiled back at him. "Stop it Phil."

"Okay, okay but only because you asked so nicely," Coulson answered.

"I'll talk to the rest of the team for you," May said.

**.**

"Pumpkin _carving_?" Hunter repeated, frowning. "What on earth is Director Coulson thinking?"

"It could be fun," Skye hedged, but mostly because Hunter was so opposed to the idea.

"I don't want to," Fitz added and May knew it was because he was afraid that he didn't have the motor skills to carve pumpkins properly.

"That's fine Fitz. You can just watch," May said, smiling at him. "I'm sure Coulson will understand."

Hunter groaned but didn't say anything else, knowing it would be pointless to argue with the steely agent. She did whatever Coulson wanted, usually without asking any questions. And besides, no matter how childish it seemed, carving pumpkins was one of the more harmless things he had asked them to do.

"Any other arguments?" May asked, looking at Tripp and Mac.

"Nope," Tripp answered.

"Pumpkin carving is cool!" Mac said enthusiastically.

May smiled. "Well, let's get to it then. And no more complaining or I'm sure Coulson will exclude you from the next team building exercise."

"And what would that be?" Hunter muttered to Mac. "Braiding each other's hair and gossiping about our crushes? I'd love to hear about how whipped Coulson is."

"Actually, we're going to the Yankees-Red Sox game," May said. "Do you want to say anything else?"

"I hate baseball. . ." Hunter trailed off and shook his head when he noticed the way May was looking at him. "No, no I don't want to say anything else."

"Good. Now come on," May answered, smirking at the thought of Hunter carving pumpkins. It was an added bonus to an already good day because Coulson was doing okay and they were going to Yankee Stadium in a week.

She was almost in the mood to actually celebrate Halloween.

**.**

They looked at the long line of pumpkins, one bare because Fitz had been too afraid to try his hand at carving anything and all the rest distinct tastes of the rest of the team and not at all the frightening images that were staples in May or Coulson's childhood.

"Who's going to help clean up?" Coulson asked as he wiped pumpkin guts off his hands.

"One, two, three. . . _not it_!" Skye shouted while everyone else echoed her.

"I'll help," Fitz said helpfully.

"It's okay," May told them. "We'll do it; you can go back and do whatever it was that you were doing before."

When they were gone, she turned to Coulson and smiled at him.

"Well, that's a big smile. What's going on in your head?" He asked.

"I was just thinking that sometimes it's like being parents to a bunch of overgrown kids."

"Sometimes," Coulson agreed, going over to the sink and starting to rinse off the carving knives as he smiled at her. "Yes, sometimes it's exactly like we're parents to overgrown kids. But I kind of like it."

May would never admit it out loud, but sometimes she liked it too.

**_End_**

**Author's Note II:**

**Two more stories left and I will officially leave October behind. I hope you liked this scattered story. I am sorry that it was so scattered, I wrote the first part before the new episode of Agents of SHIELD on Tuesday night and afterwards, when I wrote the second part, I was overtaken with emotion. . . so **_**this **_**happened. Please tell me what you think.**

**Love,**

**Holly, 10/17/2014_**


End file.
